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Apple Facing Imminent U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit
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This is a U.S. case. Global market share is irrelevant.
In the U.S., iOS has approx. 60% market share.
Mobile Operating System Market Share United States Of America | Statcounter Global Stats
This graph shows the market share of mobile operating systems in United States Of America based on over 5 billion monthly page views.
gs.statcounter.com
Handwriting has been on the wall for a long time. If you were around for the break up of Ma Bell in 1982 you know at some point you will get so big the government will start to crack down. This is not a surprise to Apple and Apple is likely well-prepared with a strategy mapped out - including fighting it and creating delays.
Market share is mostly irrelevant. Case in point: Apple lost the ebook lawsuit to Amazon when Amazon controlled 90% of the ebook market. What mattered to the court is that Apple had conspired with a group of publishers to raise the prices of ebooks on the NYTimes bestseller list. Apple's share of the ebook market was negligible relative to Amazon but it didn't matter due to violating a classic antitrust issue, i.e., conspiring to raise prices.
If this ends up making it easier for Russia or Saudi Arabia to put spyware on my Apple devices, I will not be happy.
You have to look at it differently here:
Why is the Apple Watch allowed to have functions in connection with the iPhone that other watches (Garmin etc.) are forbidden?
Why can I ONLY reply to messages on Apple Watches?
Why does Apple prohibit this function from other smartwatch manufacturers?
Because Apple wants to hinder the competition!
Apple is the Microsoft of the 90s.
You have to wonder if Apple may offer concessions to change some of their practices in order to settle with the DOJ rather than risk going to trial, losing, and being forced to do things they really do not want to do. The DOJ's first lawsuit against Google is scheduled for closing arguments in May. Have to wonder if the outcome of that case may impact Apple's decisions on how to handle their case. The DOJ has a second suit against Google that is supposed to start in the Fall as well.
Man you so missed your calling with Microsoft in the 80s and 90s. You might want to think that this is NOT about "Apple working better", but about "What Apple did to make others work worse". Which is exactly what Microsoft did under Bill Gates.
I think that they could have avoided a large amount of this litigation around the world if they hadn't chosen to chase maximization of monetization of platform access as a way of propping up their otherwise less than impressive services.
Whether Apple earned its 60%+ U.S. mobile OS market share by having a good product or due to other reasons, it doesn't give them the right to (allegedly) violate antitrust laws and engage in anticompetitive behavior. The government investigation and pending lawsuit is not "overstep."
Fantastic news
Can we please skip ahead to "Macs with user upgradeable NVMe" and "I can install iPhone apps directly from developers websites"?
Can we please skip ahead to "Macs with user upgradeable NVMe" and "I can install iPhone apps directly from developers websites"?
If Apple doesn't like the whole thing, they can found their own country. But I think that would end in a dictatorship. But they would have enough Apple believers, as you can see here in the forums.
I don't necessarily have an issue with Apple choosing to keep its 12%/15% to 27%/30% commission rates, if that's what happens, as long as fair market competition is allowed to help determine what are "fair" rates. As I stated, Apple has been preventing that from happening on a significant share of the mobile OS market (over 60% in the U.S.) due to its restrictions on sideloading and alternative app stores on iOS.
Hard to do much innovating when spending so much energy thinking about how to dodge regulators
Think how demoralizing it is to work on "features" that are meant to skirt the rules as much as possible
No wonder there is a brain drain at Apple
Super talented people will certainly have and explore options out there to be more on the cutting edge ... and not just working on more "squeezing" features over at Tim's lemonade stand
Think how demoralizing it is to work on "features" that are meant to skirt the rules as much as possible
No wonder there is a brain drain at Apple
Super talented people will certainly have and explore options out there to be more on the cutting edge ... and not just working on more "squeezing" features over at Tim's lemonade stand
Many of these are exactly WHY I want Apple products. There’s value in these to me the customer, and I know full well when I buy an Apple product. I buy into a walled garden ON PURPOSE. Why am I not allowed to do that?
Also Apple’s market share doesn’t meet the criteria for a monopoly.
Also Apple’s market share doesn’t meet the criteria for a monopoly.
Part of the reason the EU may not have “gone to court” is because Apple largely agreed (after some arguments, negotiations, etc.) to comply with the laws. Similar could happen here before reaching an actual trial.
The argument isn't that Apple needs to make their products less compatible with each other. The argument is that Apple needs to stop making it so that other companies can't compete, through things such as not allowing other watch companies to integrate with iMessage.
Also, monopolies are not the only entities subject to anti-trust laws.
Because it’s THEIR system. They developed it and they built it. If others want access to it then they can pay for it. If they don’t want to pay for it or don’t want to invest in developing their own product then they can kiss off.
Why do you believe Apple is a monopoly? What metric are you using?
Monopoly /= Majority. There are millions of non iPhones in the US and healthy competitors to Apple selling their phones in the US.
Yeah make sure you make that support for a rival piece of hardware as good as your own...oh wait.....
Less compatible and more other things to support "properly" - I can see this forum liking that !
Plus this is the US and a US company - cant see much happening here.
If Steve Jobs was alive, he would’ve kicked Tile, Beeper, Basecamp, Meta and Spotify out of Apple ecosystem for running a “cartel”. And he would’ve also punched DOJ in the “area” and told them to take a hike.
I hope Apple wins this. Apple brought tech innovation. Taking that away with lawsuit like this would cripple the tech industry in the US.